Animal Helpers 



that help us so bravely, are cursed, slan- 

 dered and foolishly persecuted by aversion 

 and hatred. 



What eccentricity of mind is it that makes 

 us destroy the animals whose assistance is 

 so profitable to us ? Almost all our helpers 

 are persecuted. Their goodwill must be 

 strongly founded since our ill-treatment has 

 not driven them from our fields and dwellings 

 for ever. The bats deliver us from a host of 

 enemies, and they are outlawed ; the mole 

 purges the ground of vermin ; the hedgehog 

 makes war on vipers ; the owl and all night- 

 birds are clever rat-hunters ; the adder, the 

 toad and the lizard feed on the plunderers 

 of our crops — and all these are outlaws. 

 People call them ugly, and kill them for no 

 other reason. Blind murderers, will you 

 never understand that you are sacrificing 

 your own defenders to an unreasonable dis- 

 like ? You complain of rats and nail the 

 owl on your door, allowing its carcase to 

 dry in the sun — a hideous trophy : you 

 complain of grubs, and kill the mole when- 

 ever the spade brings it to the surface ; you 

 set your dogs at the hedgehog for an amuse- 

 ment ; you complain of the damage done by 

 moths in your barns, but if the bat falls into 



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